Strategic Objectives

Innovators Movement with Passion, Action & Collaboration for Tomorrow

IMPACT Japan Impact the World

1. Develop Impact Platform for Entrepreneurs & Innovators
2. Activate Untapped People & Passion
3. Create Impact Research to Support National Policy & Initiatives
4. Connect the Dots

Develop Impact Platform for Entrepreneurs & Innovators

• Combine virtual and face to face
• Curate portal of leading global resources
• Demystify innovation and entrepreneurship through real world team projects
• Foster rapid prototyping & learning community
• Connect early adopters from diverse fields through meta network and community
• Grow innovators movement around passion, trust, collaboration, and impact
• Create and support focused communities and platforms such as TEDxTokyo and TEDxTokyo yz

Activate Untapped People & Passion

• Demonstrate the value of entrepreneurial and design thinking mindsets for everyone
• Help people dream bigger through a peer community of highly motivated people from diverse backgrounds
• Develop a physical volunteer center to quickly get people started on the entrepreneurial path through real social entrepreneurship projects
• Show the value of first followers
• Highlight a wide range of new role models to demonstrate how everyone can be impact playera
• Collaborate with other organizations to develop programs targeting specifice segments such as students, women, retirees, inventors, scientists, freeters and NEETs

Create Impact Research to Support National Policy & Initiatives

• Conduct independent research to define problems with a systems perspective
• Utilize design thinking’s multidisciplinary, human centered user methodology
• Leverage research to unify relevant organizations in comprehensive initiatives that no one group could accomplish

Early Initiatives:

• TEDxTokyo, TEDxTokyo yz and TEDxYouth Day
• GEW Japan
• New scholarship and initiative to promote study abroad
• Model open innovation center for tokyo and regional cities

Connect the Dots

Between

• Ideas
• Innovators
• Impact organizations
• Disciplines and sectors
• Stakeholders necessary for whole systems solutions
• Business, academia, government, and the citizen sector
• Japan & the world

Scholarship

”Japan needs more people with foreign experience”

A comprehensive scholarship program
for Japanese students to study overseas

By William H. Saito

The Problem

The number of Japanese students going overseas to study has been plummeting in recent years, and this is a serious matter for anyone concerned about the future of Japan. To reverse this trend, a new scholarship fund is needed to encourage students at Japanese universities to spend time overseas.

Japan has been in a serious malaise for the last 20 years. While the reasons for the deep sense of gloom gripping the nation are many and complex, one thing is inarguable – Japan’s global competitiveness has suffered. These two decades of malaise have been accompanied by a growing insularity, in business, academia and other segments of society. At the core of Japan’s problems – sagging academic performance among Japanese students, the declining competitiveness of Japanese industry, and a glaring absence of leadership in every segment of Japan’s society – lies this disturbing tendency toward insularity.

Trojan horse for change

Japan can do a lot to fix itself, but if it wants to lay the foundation for a better, more vigorous future, it must shuck off this insularity and engage with the world. And the best way to start – the investment in the future with the greatest potential return – is to promote study abroad.

Implementing this one simple concept, of a wide-reaching scholarship fund for overseas study, would, in a sense, provide a sort of “Trojan horse” into the Japanese establishment. What superficially seems like a simple program to encourage overseas study would inevitably unearth a whole slew of inefficiencies, barriers and problems waiting to be solved in Japan’s government, education system and society.

At the same time, it would go a long way toward helping to renew and reinvigorate Japan and help it shake off the fetters that have been holding it back all these years – allowing this country to regain its natural innovative, competitive spirit and prosper once more.

(Excerpt from soon to be published article outlining a new initiative being proposed by IMPACT Japan)

Open Social Innovation

Social Innovation Through Collective Wisdom

Current social issues require far more innovative approaches to solve than in any other conventional business solution cases.

Social innovation field as the most promising area where the concept of “open innovation” works effectively and real fruits of collective wisdom contribute to bring meaningful break-through idea to tackle problems.

• Open innovation would accelerate immergence of collective wisdom
• Social mission would remove bottleneck of knowledge sharing such as proprietary knowledge/product protection thinking of the business world
• Discussion/interaction among interest group people with trust would create flexible idea and practical solution to social issues

Social Innovation Open Platform Image
Virtual and Real combination

1. Virtual context base confined by vision and mission which resonate participants

   • Vision and mission of this social business group should be the ones that could be long-lasting
   • Business model image and agenda to be solved could share common awareness of participants
   • Cultivates strong social capital (e.g. sense of community, trust and empathy)

2. Virtual + real community of practice: core of platform: place where individual expertise knowledge are transformed into organizational collective wisdom and knowledge and generate innovative business plan

   • Place for innovative idea generation for solving social issues
   • Exploit participants’ resource (e.g. knowledge, expertise, network and skill)
   • Train entrepreneurship and leadership of participants

3. Implementation of business plan through project team formation

   • Participants focus on producer role of a social business
   • Leverages partnership of related experts and institutions

Platform for Innovators and Future Global Leaders

IMPACT Japan will gather talent and financial resources as an active research hub, incubator and clearinghouse to forge partnerships for key initiatives and national policies concerned with global innovation and entrepreneurship. IMPACT Japan will collaborate with partnering organizations, perform due diligence, and ensure that contributions from sponsors are spent wisely and efficiently.